Mara, Daughter of the Nile

From all the comments Eloise McGraw got about this book, I assumed it was a fan favorite.

Mara, Daughter of the Nile was published in 1953 and is one of three books Eloise McGraw wrote that took place in ancient Egypt. (And if you're wondering, no, that's not the first edition cover. That's my copy.)

Mara is a slave girl suddenly bought from her old master and made a spy for the new queen of Egypt. However, on her journey, she meets the young Sheftu and he convinces her to spy for him and Thutmose III, the step-brother of the queen who, Sheftu and a large band of Egyptians feel, should be the Pharaoh.

After settling into the court of Queen Hatshepsut, serving Thutmose's bride-to-be Inanni (who soon befriends Mara), Mara decides to become a double spy. But as she gets tangled up in her spying, she falls in love with Sheftu. But soon Mara's double spying is discovered and her life is at stake!

To be honest, this proved slow reading for me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood, but it didn't really pick up until that part I left off at there in my summary. Or perhaps I'm not extremely fond of McGraw's earliest works. (I've yet to finish Moccasin Trail.) It's a good story and all, but it was just slow reading for me, and I'm normally a voracious reader.

The Seventeenth Swap

And to follow up last night's post, here's The Seventeenth Swap, another book with strong characterization by Eloise McGraw.

Eric Greene lives with his widower father. On Saturday, he spends the day with Jimmy, a crippled boy he babysits. Jimmy has fallen in love with a pair of cowboy boots he's seen for sale in a newspaper ad. Much as he wants them, he knows he'll never have them.

Except, Eric wants to get them for Jimmy now. Just to do something nice for someone. But Eric doesn't make much and by the time he could save up enough from what little he gets from babysitting, the sale would be long over.

However, Eric begins to think. There's things people around town want and things they'd give. Why not start swapping around until he has something he can sell for enough money for the boots?

Eric only has a week. Can he get it done in time?

You know what I was reminded of? The Donald Duck comic story "Maharajah Donald" in which the nephews trade pencil stubs for tickets to India and 500 pounds of cat food. Of course, Eloise's story is a bit more believable and goes through the entire process while Carl Barks made some big skips.

Again, Eloise gets inside Eric's head and lets us in on his frustrations and how he plans the swaps out.

So, The Seventeenth Swap is another excellent work by Eloise McGraw, demonstrating how obstacles can be overcome if you can make a plan and make it work.

A McGraw Quintet

Something that made me like Eloise McGraw: she didn't tell stories about people, she told their stories. Instead of saying, "such and such a character decided to do something" she would get in their heads and explain how they thought. Even in simple stories, this makes the work so much better. The characters are three dimensional and the reader can relate to them.

This is likely one reason why Oz fans enjoyed her Oz books. But I'm not talking about her Oz books right now. In my last blog, I said I had some of her non-Oz books and wanted to write about them.

I have five I've read and not written about. I blogged about The Moorchild, and while I started Moccasin Trail, I've yet to finish it. (For some reason, it was slow going and then I lost my copy. I got another but have yet to finish.) I'm finishing The Seventeenth Swap and am getting Mara, Daughter of the Nile.

Now, enough of that, let's look at some books by the sixth Royal Historian of Oz!

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The Golden Goblet was published in 1961 and received a Newberry Honor.

The story is set in ancient Egypt. Ranofer is an orphan boy who works in a gold worker's shop. He lives with his brother Gebu, but as the story opens, he discovers that Gebu is part of a band of thieves who steal gold! Ranofer wants no part of it, but where can he go? Gebu will not let him leave.

Ranofer manages to tip the goldsmith off about Gebu's band's activities, but this only makes them change tactic.

One night, Ranofer finds a golden goblet that must have been stolen from a tomb. It is too beautiful and finely crafted for Ranofer to let Gebu melt down, so he sets out to set things right and expose his brother without getting himself in trouble.

The Golden Goblet immerses itself believably in ancient Egypt and delivers an exciting and satisfying finish.

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Joel and the Great Merlini is a short book. Joel wants to do a magic show, but his tricks fail to impress, even when he can make them work. Enter Merlini the magician who makes it look like Joel does amazing feats. However, Joel soon realizes that he is dissatisfied with this arrangement.

Mixing fantasy with reality, Joel and the Great Merlini is an excellent story about the gratification of doing your own work.

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The Money Room follows brother and sister Scott and Melinda (or "Lindy") as they've moved to a sleepy little country town in Oregon. While they search for their great-grandpa's legendary "Money Room," they slowly learn about their family history, their new town, and they even create their code for writing to each other.

However, someone else is looking for the "Money Room," too. Can Scott and Lindy find it first? And their mother isn't having a lot of luck with her job. The clock is ticking. What is the Money Room? Where is it? Is it even real?

The Money Room perfectly captures the uneasy feelings of moving to a new home and the simple joys children can find in life.

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Hideaway finds a boy named Jerry running away from home. His parents have divorced and he's sick of being ignored. So he runs away to his grandparents' old home by the ocean. At least, he thought it was their home.

Hanna is house-sitting for a couple on vacation. Having bounced from different foster care homes all her life, she's almost too used to new faces. But when she meets Jerry, who broke into the house she's taking care of, she begins to think about what she wants in life.

It is a strange summer as these two decide what they should do with their lives from now on, and Eloise McGraw tells it wonderfully.

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The Trouble With Jacob really got me going. Here is a story with an honest-to-goodness ghost!

Andy Peterson and his twin sister Kat are vacationing in the Hidden Creek countryside. While walking through the woods one day, Andy sees a little boy who tells him that somebody's got his bed. No one else seems to see the boy, but Andy sees him every time he walks by this large rock.

It takes some time for Andy to begin piecing things together, much less to convince anyone about the boy, who eventually says his name is Jacob. What Andy and Kat discover leads to the solution of a crime over a hundred years old, but with only conjecture on their part, can they convince anyone that justice must be delivered at last?

With a gentle supernatural spin, The Trouble With Jacob makes for an excellent read.

The Rundelstone of Oz

Eloise McGraw tried writing a third Oz book in the mid 1980s, but it wasn't coming together well, so she gave it up and said that she was done writing Oz books. (Again.) Some of her attempt at a third Oz book appeared in the Club's 1990 edition of Oziana, a magazine featuring new Oz stories by Club members.

This little piece, titled only "Chapter Three," follows the misadventures of the Flittermouse from Merry Go Round in Oz as he flies alone to the Emerald City to visit Robin and Merry. He gets caught a number of times before running into an old friend.

Fast forward to 1999, and the guys at Hungry Tiger Press were planning the final issue of Oz-Story Magazine. They wanted to make it a big, special issue, and so they contacted Eloise about writing a short piece for it. Eloise instead decided she'd come up with a short story. She turned to her discarded ideas from The Forbidden Fountain of Oz, about the live marionettes and Slyddwyn, and went from there. Eventually, her short story turned into a new Oz book, and Hungry Tiger Press was only too glad to make it a star feature in Oz-Story with Eric Shanower illustrating.

Lauren did help with the writing  of The Rundelstone of Oz, but this time, she took the silent role of editor. Eloise's name appears solo on the story.

Eloise did see her final Oz book in print in 2000, but she died that year at age 84, due to complications of cancer. (The Hungry Tiger Press crew was aware of this, which is why they had not initially asked for much.) Due to the overwhelming response to the story, the next year, her last Oz book was reissued as a standalone book, with more illustrations by Eric Shanower making the book almost as lavish as The Wicked Witch of Oz, and an introduction by Lauren Lynn McGraw.

The story opens with Ozma having tea with some ladies in waiting, including Lady Pernilda, a prim, chubby Gillikin dignitary. When she mentions that she hasn't heard from her family in a long time, Ozma tells her they can check the Magic Picture if she ever gets too concerned.

The story shifts to the Troopadours, a performing troupe of live marionettes led by a man called Maestroissimo Furioso, arriving in Whitherwood Town. A tiny performance arouses the interest of the locals, and Slyddwyn of Whitherway castle offers to let them have a grand performance at his home. However, just after the performance, something strange happens, and everything around Poco, one of the Troopadours, vanishes and goes dark.

The next thing Poco knows, he appears to be a cuckoo of a cuckoo clock, before he suddenly resumes his regular form. Slyddwyn tells him he's been missing for weeks and the Troopadours left him behind, and offers him the job of major-domo. Poco accepts, hoping he will someday find and rejoin his old friends.

Despite Slyddwn's varying moods, Poco finds life at Whitherway Castle not to be too bad. His work is easy and he makes a friend in Rolly, a boy who brings mushrooms and watercress to the castle every couple days. But things begin to rouse his suspicions when a "foreign fella" comes to the front door to sell muffins, and mentions a rundelstone and that Slyddwyn would end up as a purple hedgehog. Then Rolly confirms that it was only a day or so between the performance at Whitherway and when Poco began working as a major-domo. Something mysterious and magical is going on, and given his own apparent transformation, Poco cannot help but suspect that the other Troopadours and the Maestroissimo are still around, transformed into other shapes. In fact, certain things around the castle remind him of his old friends.

The "foreign fella" returns, disguised as an herb lady. This time, Poco asks him to explain. He's really named Shmodda, and the missing Rundelstone keeps the sun rising and setting in his home country of Fyordi-Zik, but since one of the other spell-binders left with it, Slyddwyn now has the rundelstone, and there are only five days before the sun sets in Fyordi-Zik forever. Poco has three days to find the rundelstone, restore his friends, not let Slyddwyn know what he's doing, and then surrender the stone to Shmodda.

It takes most of that time for Poco to find the stone, and then trick Slyddwyn into using it so he can observe and learn how to use it himself. The night of the third day, Poco begins to break the enchantments on the Troopadours. Rolly joins them and helps them discover that the rabbits in a wooden hutch are actually the donkeys and the Troopadours' wagon. Deciding to punish Slyddwyn for his trickery, they discover he's locked himself into a tower.

Shmodda arrives, ready to take the stone. The Troopadours manage to convince him to help them with Slyddwyn, who suggests that the missing spell-caster is an empty suit of clothes, except that Slyddwyn has many of those, and it would be too much trouble to decide which one he would be.

And now Ozma, Dorothy, the Wizard, Lady Pernilda, and the Cowardly Lion arrive to put things right. Whitherway Castle is the home of Pernilda's family, and they seem to be missing as well. Slyddwyn is her cousin. Also, Ozma assures Shmodda that Glinda and the Wizard are finding a way to keep the sun rising and setting in Fyordi-Zik without the need of spell-stones, since unauthorized magic is illegal and dangerous in the wrong hands. (Example: Slyddwyn.) However, as Poco is only trying to set things right, they allow him to finish disenchanting Slyddwyn's victims, under their supervision, of course.

Eventually, Lady Pernilda's family, the missing spell-caster, and even the Maestroissimo are disenchanted, and it turns out the Maestroissimo is Rolly's father, and he joins the Troopadoours as they continue on their travels. Slyddwyn is no longer a threat without his magic, and Shmodda returns home.

The Rundelstone of Oz is not a very complex story. In fact, it plays out very easily, once Slyddwyn's deceptions are seen through. It is a little similar to Ozma of Oz and The Yellow Knight of Oz in that the plot mainly revolves around breaking transformations. Like Ozma and unlike Yellow Knight, there are consequences for trying to disenchant the wrong thing. But like Yellow Knight, an object is required to break the transformations, and the ones doing the disenchanting are careful enough to avoid making a mistake.

Poco (I wonder if his name was inspired by Pinocchio) is a good lead character, though I couldn't imagine him leading a different story. He is faithful to his friends, and very friendly to others, like Rolly and, once he stops listening to Slyddwyn, Shmodda.

Eloise definitely had fun with characters with long names in this story (I didn't tell you the longer names, read the book on your own for those!), similar to a couple of my favorite Baum characters. With the transformations, she gets to play around with people's identities based on certain traits. This makes for fun reading as well, something Oz writers sometimes forget: Oz should be fun to read!

The Rundelstone of Oz isn't the strongest Oz story, but it is a good one, a worthy successor to the McGraws' earlier Oz books, and also, what is at present the final entry in what I call "The Famous Forty +." The only living Royal Historian whose work was published by Reilly & Lee is Lauren Lynn McGraw, and she doesn't seem very interested in writing a story, Oz or otherwise. Unless a long-lost manuscript turns up or Lauren does turn out another Oz story, the Famous Forty + ends with Rundelstone.

The Forbidden Fountain of Oz

So, Eloise and Lauren (now going by Lauren Lynn McGraw, as she had been divorced) were at it again, writing a new Oz story to be published by the International Wizard of Oz Club and illustrated by Dick Martin.

Merry Go Round in Oz had focused on many new characters, with the classic Oz characters taking a secondary role. This was because Eloise was being very cautious on how to approach such well-established characters, calling these characters "puppets." This time around, likely due to the warm reception of Merry Go Round, the older Oz characters would play a larger role.

In writing their new story, they had many new ideas, but some just didn't seem to work within the context of the story. One that the two writers remembered well was a traveling troupe of live marionettes (eat your heart out, Pinocchio) and a wicked magician named Slyddwyn.

The Forbidden Fountain of Oz was published in 1980 in a uniform edition with Yankee in Oz and The Enchanted Island of Oz, meaning yes, it was another oversize but thin paperback. (The Oz Club now offers a smaller hardcover edition that looks more like an Oz book, and this is the one I own now, though I did trade an older paperback edition for it.)

Forbidden Fountain finds a girl named Emeralda Ozgood getting ready to sell limeade so she can earn money to spend at the Clover Fair.

Yes, the Oz of the McGraws now contains money. As it turns out, Eloise did work out an explanation of how it fit in with Baum saying there was no money in Oz, and she did write it in a footnote that was asked to be removed. She later revealed the footnote at a Winkie Convention. A transcript of her talk (and an audio recording) is available online, courtesy of David Maxine, but with all respect to him, I'm going to quote. (I do highly recommend listening to or reading the entire thing, or both, as it contains quite a bit of information about the McGraws' take on Oz and how Eloise wrote. And anyway, it's difficult to find a recording of any other Royal Historian.)

The money in Oz is rather complex. There are two copper coins, the tiny fardledink and the triangle-shaped squit; five silver coins, the quingle, the quant, the ozzo, the fang and the jeedle; and the gold piozter, which has Ozma's profile on one side and the Royal Crown on the other. To give you some idea of the relative values: three fardle-dinks make a squit, six squits equal a quingle, two quingles make a quant, and three quants an ozzo. There are two ozzos in a jang and five in a jeedle. The piozter is worth ten jeedles. However most people in Oz care little about getting rich, and enjoy using all these coins mainly because they're so pretty. If you are squitless and need to buy something, they will usually make you a present of it.

That explanation works for me!

Emeralda makes limeade on the spot using her mother's best pitcher and, accidentally, water from the Fountain of Oblivion. As it turns out, Ozma is her first (and thankfully only) customer. Ozma goes to her garden before she drinks the limeade, and then prompty loses her memory, forgetting who she is and where she is. A butterfly calls her Poppy, so she assumes that must be her name.

Poppy is soon joined by a white lamb named Lambert (the other lambs in his flock are varying shades of purple) and gets new clothes from an old woman. However, they are boy's clothes, and when fully dressed, Ozma, er..., Poppy just about passes for a boy. The only piece of her old clothing she keeps is the Magic Belt, which she feels sure isn't hers.

Back in the Emerald City, it isn't long before Ozma's absence is noted. When the Magic Picture is consulted, it only shows some insects buzzing around. Kabumpo feels sure Ozma must have been kidnapped, so search parties go out. Kabumpo decides to search on his own in the Gillikin Country.

The reason why the Magic Picture showed insects was because Poppy and Lambert drank from Camouflage Creek and it made them blend in with their surroundings, and at the time, they were glitterbugs. Later they change into birds, rabbits, and deer. Finally, they resume their own forms and are about to be robbed by a highwayman when he sees they are a girl and a lamb. This is so discourteous, he refuses to rob them and hearing they are lost, invites them to his cave.

The highwayman introduces himself as Toby Bridecull, and he is attempting to follow in his father's footsteps, but isn't finding the life of a highwayman to his liking. He also has a Suggestion Box that suggests the next course of action, based on the current circumstances, or a drop of oil for itself. They decide they will join some gypsies that Toby declined to join a short time ago.

Toby proves to be an able protector, leading Poppy and Lambert past a dangerous purple wolf, but he's not able to protect them from a gooey lake!

Kabumpo's search takes him to the town of the Wyndups, where the mechanic Clockwise runs everything. Clockwise intends to convert Kabumpo into a clockwork animal, but the elegant elephant of Pumperdink escapes, but soon finds himself in a gooey lake, along with Toby, Poppy, and Lambert. They are in a Bubblegum Gozzer, but manage to escape it with some effort.

The Suggestion Box says that it is an "Auspicious day for surprises," which will soon come. Fortunately for our travelers, they find Pristinia, where everything that isn't clean is cleaned. This gets everyone completely free of the bubblegum that was stuck to them in the gozzer. But they must leave, much to the Pristinians' dismay. (They can't imagine why anyone would risk getting the least bit dirty.)

Along their journey, they come across a Truth Teller who had fallen into the Truth Pond, and the McGraws get to build on that a little: if you lie after having bathed in the Truth Pond, your ears turn bright green. However, when they go to rest, Kabumpo overhears Poppy complaining that her hair never got to dry before her hat was put back on her by Toby, and removing it, Kabumpo recognizes her as Ozma, and decides that she must have been enchanted and kidnapped by Toby!

Kabumpo decides to go back to the Emerald City, but takes a roundabout course so they will not realize what he's doing. (This leads them on a few more merry misadventures.) But when they run into the Truth Teller again, he reveals that they are going south, away from Pumperdink, Kabumpo hurries back, keeping Toby in his trunk. Poppy is dropped off in Ozma's room.

Jack Pumpkinhead recognizes Poppy as Tip at first, and Ozma's memory begins to come back to her, but when Kabumpo publicly calls Toby a villain, Ozma protests his innocence. Emeralda was found by the Wizard as the last person to have seen Ozma and he discovers the recipe of her limeade. However, the Suggestion Box suggests the Magic Belt be used to restore Ozma's memory, which it does.

Toby is made Ozma's bodyguard, and Lambert becomes the latest addition to the Royal Menagerie. Kabumpo's efforts to find Ozma are celebrated in a big party.

And so ends the McGraw's second Oz book. I feel that this time the European influence isn't as heavy, as it only comes in with Toby, and his character is nuanced enough to feel Ozzy: a highwayman who doesn't feel like being a highwayman. Lambert also has an Ozzy trait: he wants to be a colored lamb like the rest of his flock. Unlike other characters like the Cowardly Lion or the Hungry Tiger, he doesn't get over this longing. At the story's end, he is delighted with a bottle of food coloring and hopes Ozma will grant his wish to be eternally green. (Ozma hopes he will change his mind.)

Also, I love the plot. Ozma having her memory wiped makes for a good plot and allows the character to do things she wouldn't ordinarily do. She isn't quite as strong as Tip was back in The Marvelous Land of Oz, but nonetheless, her character is interesting enough to carry the plot.

Kabumpo is a surprising addition to the plot, having been absent since Thompson's own books. He is a very strong character and very much in character, in trying to do the right thing, but remain elegant, but letting his preconceptions get in the way of the actual solution to the problem. In fact, Eloise later admitted that he seemed more "alive" than her original characters in the story. Forbidden Fountain is dedicated to the memory of Ruth Plumly Thompson, and it was wonderful to see someone using one of her characters in a new Oz story at last. (Since Snow, almost all Oz books only used Baum's characters, aside from Thompson's own later books.)

As for the reception of Forbidden Fountain, Oz fans were very glad to have a new Oz story, and it seems the McGraws were pleased to present one. But would they ever come up with another one? Eloise McGraw's Oz stories were only a very small part of her literary output. But she did have some story ideas for Oz that hadn't made it into her first two books. Maybe something could come of this? Time would tell!

Merry Go Round in Oz

Lots of writers loved the Oz books, and no exception was Eloise Jarvis McGraw. She and her children read the Oz books together, and by the 1960s, she was an established author with such books as Moccasin Trail, Mara, Daughter of the Nile, and The Golden Goblet under her belt. These books proved popular with readers, librarians and publishers.

From what I gather, while reading a John R. Neill book (who wants to bet it was Scalawagons?), Eloise felt she could write a better Oz story, and she began writing one, with her daughter Lauren McGraw Wagner (at least it was then!) helping come up with story ideas and helping her edit and organize her ideas so well, Lauren was given co-author credit when the book was submitted to Reilly & Lee.

Merry Go Round in Oz was released in 1963 as the fortieth Oz book published by Reilly & Lee (they had since published their own edition of The Wizard of Oz). Dick Martin came in as illustrator, having done a lot of original Oz artwork for the International Wizard of Oz Club, so really, no one else was seemingly as suited to the task.

Merry Go Round was uniform with a reprint series of Baum's Oz books that are called "the white editions" by Oz fans, due to the white spines and cover borders. The Oz books of Thompson, Neill, Snow, and Cosgrove were not released in these editions. Given the wide availability of the white editions, it would appear they sold well, but the sales of Merry Go Round were not impressive and likely sent the message that Baum's original 14 novels were the best loved Oz books, and so the other 26 Oz books were not reprinted and began to become difficult to find. In fact, a first edition of Merry Go Round is actually the rarest first edition Famous Forty book, despite being the newest. (I was outbid on one just last Saturday at an auction.)

The story finds young Robin Brown (any relation to Thompson's Peter Brown?) going to a carnival with his large foster family, who often neglect and ignore him. He heads straight for the merry go round, where the ticketmaster encourages him to pull a ring and get a "free ride!" A free ride indeed, because when he does so, the merry go round horse, Robin and the ring tear off of the merry go round and fly off to Oz!

Already, I'm seeing the influence of Thompson on this plot.

In Oz, Peter finds the horse has come to life (because it's Oz) and he names her Merry Go Round. Hearing from some of the local wildlife that they are in Oz, they decide to head for the Emerald City, but not before they are caught by a bunch of fox hunters in a country called View Halloo.

Wait... Isn't fox hunting just a bit too British for an American fairy tale?

Just wait...

Meanwhile, in another (but not too far off) part of Oz, the tiny kingdom of Halidom discovers the final of the three circlets is now missing. The first circlet, which the king would wear on his head, gave the people wisdom. It rolled into a rabbit hole. The third circlet, which was worn like a ring, gave the people skill in crafting things. A bird flew off with it. The second circlet, which has mysteriously vanished, gave the people strength, and without it, no one feels like doing anything. Prince Gules decides to head out on a quest to recover the three circlets, and with him is his squire Fess, the Flittermouse (a winged mouse, not a bat), Fred the steed (his cousin was a Destrier!), and the fairy Unicorn.

Robin and Merry quickly get quite enough of View Halloo and depart by Merry jumping over the fence. Then they head toward the Emerald City, meeting a very Ozzy ferryman who tells them more about Ozma and that she can send Robin home and make Merry into a real horse.

Gules and Fess head through Sign Here, which is a place full of signs. But they find an oracle giving them cryptic messages about how to find the circlets. The first is disguised, the second will be found by the humblest of the party, and the third is in the hand of a "future king" and will be found in a roundabout way.

More European type fairy tale, this time even more extreme than Thompson, as well as the prophecies that were sometimes in her stories. (The Purple Prince of Oz springs to mind.) I suspect the McGraws of being Thompson fans... Now, where are our old Oz friends?

Well, we find them in chapter ten! Dorothy suggests they have an Easter party, and Ozma agrees. An egg hunt will be the main event, so Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion go to the Easter Bunny (who lives in the Munchkin Country) to get some eggs. While the Easter Bunny is busy, he manages to supply Dorothy with enough eggs for the party, and also gives her a gift for Ozma: a sugar egg with a gold band around it that shows his cavern when you look inside.

However, Dorothy and the Lion have trouble finding their way out and instead run into Prince Gules and his party. They decide to join forces.

Robin and Merry find themselves in Roundabout (a round city full of round people), where Roundelay, the sphere-seer, announces Robin as the new king due to a prophecy. (Yes, another one.)

Dorothy is made a prisoner of the Land of Good Children, but thanks to some surprising quick thinking by Prince Gules, they rescue her and escape, discovering the first circlet is the gold band around the sugar egg for Ozma. Dorothy lets them have it, of course, deciding that it can easily be replaced, and Ozma would understand the circumstances.

Gules' company find Roundabout and meet Robin, Merry, and Roundelay, who is recognized as a peddler who had been seen in Halidom. Sure enough, the people talk about "the shining symbol" of Roundabout, which Gules realizes must be one of the circlets. Roundelay has put at the top of a winding staircase, protected by a machine that would make retrieval impossible for anyone climbing it. But the Flittermouse proves "the humblest" by flying up and getting it himself. The extra strength allows them to escape Roundabout and return to Halidom in the valley of Pax-on-Argent.

It is discovered that Sir Greves worked with Roundelay to steal the second circlet, and for that crime, he must be banished. The third circlet, it is discovered, was the ring that Robin pulled that brought him to Oz. It just looked brass.

Ozma arrives on the scene, congratulating Gules on completing his quest, and since Sir Greves is sorry for his action, he is made king of Roundabout, since he's a round fellow himself. (He helped steal the circlet in return for a delicious recipe that will help Roundabout.) And rather than be sent home, Robin is allowed to stay in Oz, while Merry is now content to be a live merry go round horse rather than a real one.

As I said, a lot of the McGraws' new touches to Oz feel European and British and a little out of place for an Oz story. A lot of the story is reminiscent of Thompson's stories. Merry's desire to be a real horse eventually turning into contentment with her current state brings to mind Benny in The Giant Horse of Oz. The plot itself reminds us a little of The Hungry Tiger of Oz, though the plot feels tighter than that book. (Eloise mentioned that she got an angry letter from an Oz fan practically accusing her of plagiarism from that book and Rinkitink in Oz. She commented that while she did see the similarity with Hungry Tiger, it was not intentional and that with a long-running series, it was bound to happen.)

All together, Merry Go Round in Oz is a very fun book that is easy to like, but it doesn't feel extremely Ozzy with all the European influence. Yes, Thompson was guilty of such as well, and even Baum had some traditional style kingdoms in his stories. But here, there is not enough Ozzy wit and magic in Halidom and the neighboring kingdom of Troth to make it work, unlike in Thompson and Baum. (As it turns out, Lauren was an Anglophile at the time and couldn't resist adding these touches to her favorite fairyland.)

Merry Go Round in Oz was the last new Oz book published by Reilly & Lee, who were, at the time, now part of the Henry Regnery Company. Soon, the Reilly & Lee line was restricted to Oz books and they relinquished their rights to be the only ones publishing new Oz books, allowing other literary works to come about.

Reilly & Lee is still around, in a sense, though they don't publish Oz books anymore or go by that name. In the 1980s, they had become Contemporary Books, and are now part of McGraw-Hill. (As a personal aside, when I was studying for my GED, I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the books I was studying from was published by Contemporary Books. That tells you how much they've changed.)

So, that is the story of how what fans now call "The Famous Forty," "The Official Oz Books," or "The Canon" came to be.

But since you've been following along with these blogs, you know that the author's last Famous Forty book was never their last Oz work. Merry Go Round in Oz, while being the last Famous Forty book, was the only such book to be published after the International Wizard of Oz Club was founded. There was now a dedicated fan base who thoroughly enjoyed this new Oz story and sent the new authors many letters thanking them for it. They were even invited to conventions, and seeing the love for Oz and their own work, you may very well guess that Eloise and Lauren soon felt the urge to write another Oz story!

The Moorchild

Okay, I got to read this book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw recently and decided to blog about it here. Most of my readers are likely aware that Eloise was a prolific author, and among her many books were three Oz books, one of them being Merry-Go-Round in Oz, the last book of the Famous Forty. (Her daughter Lauren had some input on her Oz books, and her mother gave her co-author credit.)

So, yes, that does mean I'll blog about books by Oz authors. (I may not be limiting it to Famous Forty authors, either...)

The story isn't too specific about exactly where it takes place. I read that it is supposed to be medieval England, but for all I was concerned, it could have been there, Ireland, or even a nonexistent land.

Old Bess, an herbalist, sees that something is not right about her new grandchild Saaski. She realizes it must be a changeling: a fairy or goblin in human form replacing a kidnapped baby.

The truth is, she is correct, but what the truth is, even she could not have guessed. Saaski is actually Moql, formerly a member of "the Folk," a fairy race that lives on the Moor. She is actually half Folk, and half human, and when she fails to hide from a human, the prince makes her a changeling, making her live with humans.

Saaski, however, only has extremely vague memories of her life with the Folk and is sure she must be human. However, everyone notices she is odd. There are some who accept her, like Yanno and Anwara, her "parents," and even old Bess and the shepherd boy Tam. But most of the town is suspicious, and soon begin to fear her, some even harshly evading her. Saaski just wants to be accepted.

Overall, the book was very enjoyable. I thought the take was very unique, and a little comparable to how Baum reinvented the story of "The Gingerbread Man" as John Dough & the Cherub. Most Changeling Child stories end with the parents or a suspicious adult avoiding their child from being taken, or rescuing their child. The Moorchild tells the story mostly from the Changeling's point of view, with the original twist that the replacement is initially unaware it isn't human.

There are a few ideals from Baum in the story, such as when Bess confronts Yanno and Anwara about Saaski's true identity, they decide against trying to kill or harm her to get their child back, for even if it was a Changeling, it would not be right to treat a living creature in such a way. This echoes Ozma's refusal to fight in The Emerald City of Oz.

The writing is very well done, engaging and easy to read. Some less experienced readers might be put off by the lack of a definite location and the odd colloquialisms of the characters. But seasoned readers should find this book a delight.

How does the story end? Does Saaski become Moql again? Is Yanno and Anwara's child that was taken at birth restored to them? Does the town learn to accept Saaski? I'm not saying. Go read The Moorchild yourself!